Gambino crime family
| Also Known As | Gambino family Gambino organized crime family Former Anastasia family Former Mangano family |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | New York City |
| Territory | New York metropolitan area New Jersey Long Island Documented operations and partnerships elsewhere in the United States and Italy |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Mangano crime family Anastasia administration |
| Profile | |
| Structure | La Cosa Nostra family with an administration, captains, inducted soldiers and associates |
| Activities | Racketeering conspiracy Murder and murder conspiracy Extortion and loansharking Illegal gambling Labor and waterfront racketeering Fraud, theft and money laundering Drug trafficking |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Carlo Gambino (c. 1957–1976) |
| Notable Members | Carlo Gambino Paul Castellano John Gotti Aniello Dellacroce Frank Cali Albert Anastasia |
| Activity | |
| Status | Active organization documented in federal convictions and guilty pleas; current leadership not assigned |
| Years Active | c. 1957–present (Gambino phase; earlier D'Aquila–Mineo–Mangano lineage) |
The Gambino crime family is one of New York City's five La Cosa Nostra families. Carlo Gambino became leader after Albert Anastasia's killing in 1957, giving the continuing D'Aquila–Mineo–Mangano organization its modern conventional name.
The family was not founded as a direct split from the complete Palermitani network. “Gambino family” is anachronistic for the earlier D'Aquila, Mineo, Scalise, Mangano and Anastasia phases.
D'Aquila–Mangano lineage
[edit]Salvatore D'Aquila's organization emerged as an outgrowth of the Morello formation after the 1910 federal convictions weakened its old leadership. After D'Aquila's 1928 killing, Manfredi Mineo led the former organization. Mineo's 1930 death was followed by a brief Frank Scalise administration and Vincent Mangano's succession in 1931.[1]
The lineage is:
- D'Aquila crime family → Mineo-led former D'Aquila family → Scalise administration → Mangano crime family → Anastasia administration → Gambino crime family.
The Profaci crime family was a separate Palermitani-origin organization. It should not be folded into this succession merely because both families contained Palermo-province blocs.
Mangano and Anastasia phases
[edit]The Mangano family built substantial influence on the Brooklyn waterfront and in related labor and business relationships. Albert Anastasia became a major internal power and is described in later accounts as Mangano's underboss.[2]
Philip Mangano was killed and Vincent Mangano disappeared in April 1951. No court established who ordered or committed the killings. Anastasia took control of the surviving family. His administration represented leadership succession after an unresolved violent removal, not a separate family created by merger.
Anastasia was killed in October 1957. Gambino then became boss. Later narratives differ over the exact coalition behind the killing; responsibility is therefore attributed rather than presented as judicial fact.
Gambino leadership and successors
[edit]Under Gambino, the family expanded its political, construction, labor, trucking, gambling and business relationships. The organization retained old waterfront interests while extending into other metropolitan rackets. Presence in an industry does not establish that every worker, union official or contractor was connected to the family.
Gambino died in 1976. Paul Castellano succeeded him, while Aniello Dellacroce headed an important faction. John Gotti's faction killed Castellano in 1985, and Gotti became boss. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of racketeering and murder-related offenses and sentenced to life imprisonment. The FBI describes its investigation and prosecution of Gotti as a major campaign against the family.[3]
These administrations were successive leadership phases. They were not newly chartered crime families.
Federal prosecutions and organization
[edit]The FBI identifies the Gambino organization as one of New York's five Mafia families.[4] Federal cases describe an administration, captains, inducted soldiers and associates.
In 2011, fourteen members and associates pleaded guilty to crimes including racketeering, murder conspiracy, extortion, sex trafficking and related offenses.[5]
A 2017 U.S.–Canadian case charged Gambino and Bonanno members and associates with racketeering and related offenses; later sentences established guilt for particular defendants.[6]
In November 2023, federal authorities announced a coordinated U.S.–Italian case charging ten alleged Gambino members and associates with violent extortion, fraud, theft, embezzlement and related schemes involving the carting and demolition industries.[7] Those indictment allegations remained charges until resolved.
Subsequent guilty pleas supplied firmer evidence of particular crimes and participants.[8] The cases establish activity into the 2020s without requiring an unsourced current boss list.
Brooklyn Camorra and organizational limits
[edit]Some surviving individuals from the Brooklyn Camorra entered later Mafia coalitions after the 1917–1918 prosecutions destroyed its old leadership. The reviewed evidence does not establish that D'Aquila or a later Gambino predecessor absorbed the intact Brooklyn Camorra as one subordinate corporation.
The current evidence supports the Gambino family's continued existence and particular convicted conduct. It does not provide a sufficiently reliable complete current boss, underboss and consigliere roster for this article, so none is assigned.
References
[edit]- ↑ David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 136, 157, 174, 184 and 187.
- ↑ [https://mafiahistory.us/a009/f_albertanastasia.html Thomas Hunt, “Ambition Toppled Brooklyn King Anastasia,” The American Mafia, 2016.
- ↑ “John Gotti”, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- ↑ “New York's Five Families”, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- ↑ “Last of 14 Gambino Crime Family Members and Associates Plead Guilty”, Federal Bureau of Investigation, January 10, 2011.
- ↑ “Members and Associates of Gambino and Bonanno Organized Crime Families Sentenced”, United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, May 9, 2019.
- ↑ “Ten Members and Associates of the Gambino Crime Family Arrested in Coordinated U.S.-Italian Takedown”, United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, November 8, 2023.
- ↑ “Captain and 10 Members and Associates of Gambino Crime Family Plead Guilty to Crimes”, United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York.